Supercharge Designer Spotlight:
Joelle Phua
Welcome to the next part of Supercharge Designer Spotlight, where we’ll spotlight Joelle Phua, a London-based design and tech content creator. Her content is mostly filled with helping junior designers thrive, not just survive, in jobs they love by sharing no-bs advice and in-depth practical advice to cut through the social media noise.
She now focuses on showing career switchers how to frame their USP to their advantage. Joelle has gained plenty of experience working in fintech and health tech.
Read on as we delve into Joelle’s journey, her sources of inspiration, and her invaluable contributions to the design world in greater detail.
What made you interested in design in general? What drew you to UX/UI design particularly?
With my background in sociology, art, and marketing, UX design is the perfect marriage of my skills and my interests in people, society, and making a positive impact as a creative.
Over time, in addition to the scalable impact, the problem-solving aspect of taking a real problem and solving it for people is extremely satisfying and fulfilling.
What was the most significant or memorable project of your career so far? Why did you pick that one?
Reimagining patient experiences with the dentist—many people have anxiety and fear of going to the dentist for different reasons.
Also, the expensive nature of treatments adds an extra layer of friction to something that should be seen as healthcare.
Enabling patients to get the ‘job done,’ which is essentially a happier and healthier life, through providing intuitive and friendly finance was a great moment for me.
Loan calculator app for patients
How would you describe your approach to design overall? What principles guide your work the most?
Prioritise and focus. At the heart of it, design is about problem-solving. You really have to think about product strategy and ensure that your designs come from a place of solving a problem and not just because you think it’s the “right thing to do.”
This means prioritizing ruthlessly and making sure that you’re listening to:
I‘m always questioning whether the problem is even a problem because as soon as you go down the rabbit hole of trying to create something that doesn’t even need to exist, it’s a disservice to yourself, your team, and your users.
The redesigned merchant portal
What skills do you see as indispensable for a modern UX/UI designer?
Similar to what I said before, the ability to question and think critically is going to be extremely important, especially with the increase in the use of AI tools.
However, you should not be scared of AI. Instead, be scared about the skills you do not have right now that can be replaced by AI.
Soft skills and human connection will never (or will take a long, long time to) be replaced, so work on those. My top recommendations for soft skills are influencing stakeholders and product strategy.
How do you maintain your work-life balance? What activities do you enjoy outside of design/work?
This is a timely question. I’ve just gone full-time as a freelance designer and content creator, so since quitting my job, I’ve been constantly reminding myself that I need a life outside of work.
For me, it looks like going out to see friends, getting bubble tea, and trying new restaurants, and I also love traveling.
What are the biggest changes you expect to see in the design industry over the years? What trends excite you the most?
Design as a whole is going to get a big shakeup. The industry is very competitive right now because there are a lot of layoffs, a lot of jobs, and a lot of juniors coming into the industry.
And I think more than design, we need to look beyond design and understand what problems are increasing or appearing in society and look for opportunities for how design thinking can help alleviate those problems.
I’m excited for more deep consideration of the impact of technology and design on everyday people.
Joelle’s design of a dashboard
What advice would you give to aspiring designers?
Know your priorities. Because if you don’t know what you want, for example, your learning style and your financial situation, you’ll be influenced by every other person on the internet telling you that you need to do a boot camp or do a course when in reality it might not be for you.
Define the game you are playing and ignore the rest.
Also, have realistic expectations about the job that you’re going into. Design is, first and foremost, a job, nothing more than that. So don’t idolize it; go into it with a straight head and know that you’re stepping into an industry that is still growing and maturing as we speak.
Joelle has launched an exciting career that blends sociology, art, and marketing, leading her to excel in UX design. Her diverse background has equipped her to tackle complex challenges with innovative solutions, all in the name of enhancing user experiences.
Joelle is a strong advocate for design as a methodical problem-solving approach, emphasizing the value of data-driven decisions and meeting genuine user needs.
Transitioning into freelancing brought new opportunities for Joelle to find a balance between professional and personal growth. She’s mindful of the competitive design landscape and the importance of understanding societal issues.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about Joelle and that you look forward to future Designer Spotlight articles we have planned for you. Subscribe to our newsletter to never miss an update!
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more inspiring stories in our Supercharge Designer Spotlight series!
